The recall campaign against California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom has collected around 1.5 million signatures, more than the number of signatures needed to put the recall question before voters. The signatures will still need to be verified and the campaign is hoping to collect additional signatures to maintain a comfortable buffer.
Fox News reports that organizers of the campaign confirmed the latest recall effort against the governor currently has some 1.5 million signatures and hopes to reach 1.6 million signatures by Sunday. By mid-March, the group hopes to have 2 million signatures to maintain a healthy margin that may be needed during the verification process. The group notes there was a 25 percent disqualification rate among signatures previously collected, according to the report.
As the recall effort nears victory, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last week that President Biden not only shares a commitment with Newsom on a wide range of issues but opposes efforts to recall the governor.
At the end of December, the group had collected some 911,000 of the 1,495,709 signatures needed to trigger a special election. Organizers said many of those signatures poured in during the weeks following Newsom's now-infamous trip to the French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley in violation of his own coronavirus guidelines.
Those not incensed over Newsom's "rules for thee but not for me" attitude can still fault the governor for the state's rolling blackouts, a deadly wildfire season exacerbated by environmental regulations, the governor's decision to cut pay for firemen while handing out stimulus checks to illegal aliens, his signing of legislation removing automatic penalties for child sex offenders, and the list goes on and on.
If the required number of valid signatures is reached, a recall election will be held to ask voters if they want to recall Newsom and, if so, who should replace him.
More information about the recall effort can be found here.